Costa was another of those signings I wasn't sure if they needed but he's looked great, more first team quality than Shaqiri (although I thought he was fairly effective as a bit-part player)

I never imagined Douglas Costa being this good if I'm honest.

Agree about Shaqiri.

Full strength sides?

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More or less.

Hey lads. Thread's been well dead for some time now.

In fact, it IS still the 2014-15 season thread.

How about someone respectable () like TRS starting a new one, and I can ask the experts for the lowdown on Mahmoud Dahoud?

Syrian and that is my full analysis

Thread's been well dead for some time now.
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Well, yeah - it is for the 14/15 season

comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
Thread's been well dead for some time now.
====
Well, yeah - it is for the 14/15 season
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Not that I mentioned it in the next line down.

Didn't know this thread hadn't been updated

Höwedes signs a new contract with Schalke until 2020. Good chance he could turn out to be a one club man, really hope he wins more trophies at Schalke. Still wouldn't mind seeing him at Arsenal.

Surprised how well the promoted teams are still doing. Hannover especially really look in trouble.

First Matip, now Höger leaving Schalke at the end of the season.

If Dortmund with der Klassiker they're 2 points off Bayern

Interesting timing for Hönigstein to dedicate his Guardian column to Mainz & Schmidt.

Apparently the man behind the scenes at Mainz all these years is off to Schalke next season. I imagine you must be hopeful, Andrei.

This was the article, btw:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/01/mainz-martin-schmidt-bayern-munich-bundesliga

Christian Heidel is the guy's name, couldn't remember it.

Gonna be interesting to see how Bayern get through the next two weeks.

I'm always a little hesitant when staff/players from an overachieving club move to one with higher expectations but Breitenreiter is doing okay and the Mainz guys, at least the coaches, have proved they can make the step up.

Interesting how he mentions Mainz's strength being great buying and selling, but I think for Schalke to start competing or at least solidify their status as a CL quality team it'll be important to keep players who do well, especially the youngsters.

Augsburg bottling it

Pizarro and Bremen one of those cool matches that just works

Yeah, the step up is always a bit of a journey into uncharted territory.

Thing is though, when a small club like Mainz manage to do so well one coach after another, then it's obvious that they're helped by other things being in place higher up in the club's structure. Villarreal are a similar case in Spain. The town's entire population would barely fill half the Camp Nou, but they've been battling it out for European footy nerly every season since the turn of the century.